The Northern Gannet is the largest member of the gannet family, a group of seabirds that spends its winters at sea. It's a reasonably large bird, at 2.5 - 3 feet long, weighing ~ 5 - 8 lbs. Juveniles are brown; adults are white with black on their wings and bluish bills and eyes. They feed by diving head first into groups of fish that gather near the surface of the water.
I read something yesterday that quoted a BP exec as saying that they might be able to prevent much of the spilled oil from reaching land. A good thing, no doubt. But for the critters that live in and around that water - birds, sea turtles, dolphins, fish - it's still a major problem. Even if the land we live on isn't impacted directly, the industries that support the Gulf economically will be, as will the ongoing health of the ecosystems in the region.
It sounds hippy-dippy when you say it, but apparently it's true: we're all connected, and in order to take care of ourselves we have to take care of the world around us.
Doodled from a photo on Wikimedia Commons.
